One of our supporters just called me to tell me of an incidence on her Delta flight. She was seated in an aisle seat next to a 13-year-old boy who was traveling alone. In the window seat was a man watching a Delta supplied movie with sexually graphic scenes. The boy’s eyes couldn’t avoid the scenes. Our supporter was so concerned that she got up from her seat and went to the front of the plane to urge the stewardess to help the boy but was told nothing could be done!
This outrages me, as I hope it does you. We’ve had previous success getting airlines to improve policies against pornographic content, but between enforcement, consistency with movie editing, and better protection against sexual harassment there is much more work that needs to be done.
Airlines are chronically ill-prepared to address the growing problem of pornography on airplanes and the ensuing culture of sexual harassment that this fosters. As we see pornography and sexual harassment increase on planes, it’s tragic to also see the FBI reported a 66% increase in full-fledged sexual assaults on planes in the past few years.Â
We have an aggressive campaign beginning against these airlines – already we’ve reached out to their corporate executives and have met with other organizations about ways to join forces to pressure these companies to do the right thing.